They Say It Wasn't Race...

...well what else could it have been?

Marching Neo Nazis + rioting African Americans = an issue of race.

Lou Ratajski, who is eighty-six, lost everything he worked for his entire life.

UPDATE:  Apparently ABC News doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good headline.  Geeze...

Hat tip:  Oh That Liberal Media

There's just no excuse.  Yeah, I know, I'm white and it's very "un PC" for us white folk to comment on racial riots but that's just tough.  Bad behavior is bad behavior no matter what color you are. 

As much as I think those neo-nazis are idiots, they have the right to stand on the street corner and speak their minds...just like Louis Farrakhan has the right to hold his Million Man March in D.C. ...that's what makes this country great.  We all have the right to say what we want, no matter how idiotic it is.  We don't, however, have the right to tear down our neighbor's house and burn down businesses in response to stupid speech.

Leshaun Fossett talks about who's being blamed for the riots.   

"Rather than to blame the real culprits who took part in most of the violence in Toledo yesterday, residents are blaming the neo-nazi assholes who marched there and that the nazis had no right to march.

But the thing is that most of the people who were rioting were black, and there were tearing up their own shit."

I watched the news on this yesterday.  All I heard was that these riots were gang related...like that's supposed to excuse these criminal actions.  But I don't buy that.  If it were totally gang related, they would be fighting each other.  And it certainly looked to me like everyone was cooperating with each other as I was watching hoards of these morons break into homes and destroy businesses.

Here's a timeline courtesy of Michelle Malkin.  This is what struck me the most:

2:15 p.m.: Mayor Jack Ford arrives at Mulberry near Wilson Park. Mayor Ford, Fire Chief Mike Bell, and the Rev. Mansour Bey from the First Church of God in Toledo walk down Mulberry toward Central. Mr. Ford, his head down, tells a reporter that he hopes to disperse the crowd without more violence erupting. With a megaphone, Chief Bell tries to talk to the crowd, numbering about 300 to 400. “Listen up! The Nazis have been gone two hours!” Mayor Ford also tries to talk to the crowd through the megaphone, explaining that the neo-Nazi group had a constitutional right to march. The crowd is angered by that explanation. Mayor Ford at times hands the bullhorn to a reputed gang leader, who tries to calm people down while the mob is screaming at the mayor and others.

2:50 p.m.: Looters break into Jim & Lou’s Bar, at 3032 Mulberry, steal liquor, destroy an upstairs apartment, and set it on fire.

At 2:15, the neo-nazis had been gone for 2 hours....at 2:50 Lou Ratajski's bar and home was destroyed. 

What did Lou Ratajski ever do to deserve this?  Nothing....absolutely nothing.  There were 114 arrests.  I don't think a simple jail sentence is the answer...I think these 114 should be required to rebuild these businesses...starting with Jim & Lous Bar.

Toledo has now been scarred for life.  It will now be known as a city of riots.  How sad.

Lisa

Comments

[USMC Steve]

When dealing with animals behaving such as this, superior and overwhelming firepower is needed. Those scumbags needed to be killed. And after the first few dropped with bullet holes in them, the rest would very rapidly have modified their behavior.

That was demonstrated when the childish blacks rioted over their favorite felon, Rodney King. When they went to burn out a Korean neighborhood, the Koreans killed over a dozen of them, and they quickly went looking for an easier target somewhere else. YOU DO NOT CODDLE ASSHOLES, YOU KILL THEM.

[BB]

The crazy thing about this whole situation.. The nazi idiots got exactly what they wanted.

Media exposure and to boot negative towards the people they were trying to rile..

Is everyone stuck on stupid??

[USMC Steve]

What really sucks is that the Neo Numbskulls were the more disciplined of the two groups. It appears though that the blacks were just looking for an excuse to go ignorant and act like petulant children. Sane adults just do not act like that.

[Capitalist Infidel]

USMC Steve

Didn't you know that these poor downtrodden youths are just kept down by the Man? It should be expected that these fine young Americans would act out after centuries of oppression.

/channelling steve and cat

[Lisa]

Down Capppy down....

down boy.

[Capitalist Infidel]

Lisa

I'm just trying to get steve and cat to come out and play. I know that assistant managers job at White Castle is keeping them busy but they should be up for a break soon.

[Lisa]

USMC Steve...Cappy isn't referring to you babe... he's talking to Hard Core.

just thought I'd nip that in the bud.

[catastrophile]

I guess you guys are implying that if a black group decided to walk the streets of a white neighborhood chanting "Kill Whitey" or something similar, there wouldn't have been a violent response.

Of course, when we feel threatened by black people, we get the cops to come to the rescue, and "keeping the peace" always seems to trump constitutional rights. You can think whatever you want of that, but I've seen legal permitted protests busted up by riot police with rubber bullets, without so much as a warning, for the crime of free speech. And then the PD determines there was a miscommunication or something, and no charges are filed.

But sure, the Nazis decide to terrorize a black neighborhood, and _they've_ got the right. And then you wonder why the black community always talks about racism.

But before you go stupid on me, note that I'm not suggesting that violence was justified. I'm suggesting it was provoked. And that there's a deep cultural rift in this country that you're not going to solve by calling people idiots. But good luck with that.

[Capitalist Infidel]

The Nazi's never marched, they were escorted to their cars and left town before it even started.

Now what's your explanation?

[Estella]

If they'd attacked the stupid skinheads, then they would have been provoked. I'm trying to figure out why they attacked homes and businesses that had nothing to do with the neo nazis. Why burn some old guy's bar, not the cars of the neo nazis? The neo nazis shipped in - they were not from the neighborhood that got destroyed! Where's the sense in that?

[catastrophile]

Estella, that's a fair point. Misdirected anger is a big problem in this country, among all groups.

I am curious, however, about the details we don't have. The IndyStar article linked in the post says the Nazis "came to the city because of a dispute between neighbors, one white and the other black." In other words, the tension didn't materialize out of thin air. So we don't really know what Lou Ratajski did or didn't have to do with anything.

[JFH]

Cat said:
..but I've seen legal permitted protests busted up by riot police with rubber bullets, without so much as a warning, for the crime of free speech.

I got to call ya on this, buddy: NAME ONE in the last 10-20 years(please site sources, 'cus God knows the press would have covered this, especially if it was a majority of blacks protesting)

[catastrophile]

Without investing an undue amout of time in googling, I can point you at last year in NYC:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/10043

[USMC Steve]

Cat, as a matter of fact, if the brothers walked down my street and did that, or did it on most other streets where mostly white people lived, THERE WOULD BE NO VIOLENCE DONE TO THEM, UNLESS THEY COMMITTED VIOLENCE FIRST. That is the significant difference between the two races which can be demonstrated by the psychotic behavior of blacks in Los Angeles during the Rodney King incident, the Reginald Denney incident, and countless others. They knew the police in this case would not or could not do anything about them rioting and looting and burning, so they did so with impunity.

There were less than 40 of the neo nazis there, and they never took one step on their march, other than to be escorted to their cars and leave, escorted out by the police. When the brothers rioted and burned and acted the fool, THE NEO NAZIS WERE NOT EVEN THERE. Thus there was no rational reason for their behavior. Regardless of who initially did what to offend whom, there was no catalyst present when the riot began, and thus no rational reason to do what they did.

The "black community" such that it is, uses racism as their battle cry any time they don't get everything they feel they are entitlet do, as demonstrated and encouraged by the deeds and words of famous traitor and black racist "Kill Whitey" Farakahan. And every time they demonstrate their lack of control and restraint, the "rift" you mentioned gets deeper, all right. It tars responsible blacks with their actions, and makes everyone else wonder if they are frigging INSANE. You need to wake up to the reality of the situation here.

[USMC Steve]

Cat, your example is invalid, in that while reading it, it said the person in question was carried off to be jailed. To my knowledge, lethal or less than lethal force was not applied to any of the people rioting there, although one moron did attempt to murder a police officer early on by trying to bash his brains out.

But of course, that would be okay in liberal land wouldn't it, since the cops were obviously protecting the evil republicans.

[JFH]

Where are the rubber bullets, Cat???!!!!

[catastrophile]

Well, I think false testimony and unlawful arrest is bad enough, but I did refer to police violence, so here's an event I was at:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/49/news-seeley.shtml

No doubt you'll accuse me of twisting facts, and I admit I'm biased, since I'm related to one of the individuals named in the article, but I was less than twenty feet from the cops when the shooting started and I can say with some certainty that they had no cause to act that way.

And in the weeks that followed, I watched the nonsense used to justify their behavior -- and yeah, in the end the official story was miscommunication -- as the city paid out Lord-only-knows-how-much (six figures in my relative's case) to quietly sweep the PD's actions under the rug.

The irony of a rally against police brutality being brutally attacked by the police was lost in the scuffle.

[USMC Steve]

Why does that not surprise me that it was the LAPD that did that. Cat has a point on this one, and it was uncalled for.

But then, I would not get up in someone's face and intentionally try to piss them off either.

Given the utter lack of discipline and self control the LAPD has, that is not a smart thing to do, let alone be surprised that they whumped on some of the protesters. It should not have happened but I don't find it surprising that it did.

[catastrophile]

& Steve: "if the brothers walked down my street and did that, or did it on most other streets where mostly white people lived, THERE WOULD BE NO VIOLENCE DONE TO THEM, UNLESS THEY COMMITTED VIOLENCE FIRST."

Like I said, we call the cops, and they "keep the peace." If people dare to start talking about constitutional rights or resist in any way, well, let's just say examples like the one in New Orleans recently are the ones that stick in people's minds. Unarmed people being beaten up and gunned down, over and over and over.

If your answer to people who perceive institutional racism is "you're wrong, you're an idiot, shut your mouth," like I said, good luck with that.

And it's interesting that you'd use the Rodney King incident as an example of black-initiated violence. Cops beat the living $#!+ out of a black guy, the trial is held in copland, the cops get off -- and people go nuts. This proves what, exactly?

[catastrophile]

Steve: I take your point about the wisdom of getting up in the faces of cops, but I don't think the story really conveys how ridiculous it was. A friend of mine who went every year said that she had _never_ seen riot cops assembled along the route, and that the rally was always peaceful. And not only did they "thump on" a few protesters, they swept the streets and boxed us into a tiny area, et cetera, et cetera.

This is an extreme example, to be sure, but to see the people who were the core of the rally -- predominantly black, all having lost family members at the hands of cops -- and to have the police overreact that way . . .

And I really don't have problems with cops, even LAPD cops. I've never had an encounter with a cop where they were anything but polite and cooperative -- they even loosened my cuffs when they were pinching. It's just tough to witness something like that and not come away feeling like there's an institutional sort of racism at work. That feeds into anger, and anger gets vented.

Some people nail homos to fences; some people blow things up; some people riot.

[catastrophile]

I'm trying to source this claim that there were only 40 people and they never marched. The IndyStar article cites the police chief as saying that "the riots escalated because members of the National Socialist Movement took their protest to the neighborhood, which is predominantly black, instead of a neutral place." Looking at the timeline it reads as if the cops were marching alongside the Nazis and firing teargas at the counter-protesters.

I might be missing something here, but the image I'm gleaning from the various descriptions linked in the post is hardly that there was no march and the riots came out of nowhere.

[USMC Steve]

Cat, I have some knowledge of the King issue as I was one of the Marines sent into LA to try to keep everyone from killing each other. Some potentially lethal but very amusing events occurred when cops and Marines interacted too.

But to the point, the facts of the King case are these: He was stoked on PCP, resisted arrest repeatedly, would not stay down and tried to strike the police. Given his size, and the fact that they Taser gunned him to no effect, frankly I would have just killed him and been done with it. The police finally subdued him and they did not use excessive force to do it given the amount of resistance they faced from him. I seriously doubt that many of the blacks who went out and went nuts over that even really knew the facts or saw the entire tape of what happened, and the media is directly to blame for that, since they edited the tape to cut the initial attack by king on the cops.

That the blacks in LA didn't like the verdict did not in any way give them an out to riot, burn others homes, and LOOT. I keep seeing a common pattern in that "black dissatisfaction" often involves stealing. ("I'm stealing this TV set to avenge Rodney King!") Wonder why that is?

With cops it often is them or us, but it is "cops versus everyone else". They get a bit paranoid of anyone else who isn't one of them in some cities.

It still strikes me as just dumb that if the brothers were so hacked off at the cops that they didn't arm themselves and go after the source of their hatred, the cops. 10,000 people with any sort of guns would have brought the LAPD to its knees very quickly. (Of course, that is why we Marines were brought in there at that point. )

The fact of the matter is that there is a basic and fundamental lack of self discipline here, nothing more.

[USMC Steve]

None of the accounts I have read bear out the Indy paper. Maybe they all have it wrong, but I don't exactly trust the media anyway. And it may all depend on who one talked to for the story. The count I saw frequently passed on was only 26 of the skinhead types.

[Matt Hurley]

Allow me to recommend a paper that is, you know, actually on the scene rather than a whole state away...

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS16/51017001

The Toldedo Blade...

[USMC Steve]

I have no idea why I typed Indy rather than Toledo. I actually do know where it happened, I just went stupid for a second there.

Sorry bout that.